Latest resignation leaves White House in ‘death spiral’

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump once presided over a reality show in which a key cast member exited each week. The same thing seems to be happening in his White House.
Trump’s West Wing has descended into a period of unparalleled tumult amid a wave of staff departures, despite the president’s insistence that it is a place of “no Chaos, only great Energy!” The latest key figure to announce an exit is Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser, who had clashed with Trump over trade policy. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, was the leading internal opponent to the president’s planned tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum
His departure has sparked fears of an even larger exodus, raising concerns in Washington of a coming “brain drain” around the president that will only make it more difficult to advance his already languishing policy agenda. While Trump has publicly tried to dispel perceptions of disarray, multiple White House officials said the president has been pushing anxious aides to stay on the job to try to staunch the bleeding.
“Everyone wants to work in the White House,” Trump insisted during a news conference Tuesday. “They all want a piece of the Oval Office.”
The reality is a far different story.
Vacancies abound in the West Wing and the broader Trump administration — with some jobs never filled by the president and others subject to repeat openings. The job of White House communications director is soon to be empty again after the departure of its fourth occupant, Hope Hicks.
“They are left with vacancies atop of vacancies,” said Kathryn Dunn-Tenpas, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who tracks senior-level staff turnover. Her analysis shows the Trump departure rate has reached 40 percent in just over a year.
“That kind of turnover creates a lot of disruption,” she added, noting the loss of institutional knowledge and relationships with agencies and Congress. “You can’t really leave those behind to your successor.”
Turnover after a year in office is nothing new, but the Trump administration has churned through staff at a dizzying pace and allies are worried the situation could descend into a free-fall.
One White House official said there is concern about a potential “death spiral” in the West Wing — each departure heightening the sense of frenzy and expediting the next.
Multiple aides who are considering departing, all speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, said they did not have a clue whom the administration could find to fill their roles — adding that their desire to be team players has kept them on the job longer than planned. But a number warned they were nearing a breaking point.
“You have situations where people are stretched to take on more than one job,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project.
She cited the example of Johnny DeStefano, who oversees the White House offices of personnel, public liaison, political affairs and intergovernmental affairs. “Those are four positions that in most administrations are each headed by an assistant to the president or a deputy assistant,” Kumar says.
The overlap between those qualified to work in the White House and those willing to take a job there has been shrinking too, according to White House officials and outside allies concerned about the slow pace of hires.
Trump’s mercurial decision-making practices, fears of being drawn into special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and a stalled legislative agenda are keeping top-flight talent on the outside.
“Most of all, President Trump hasn’t demonstrated a scrap of loyalty to current and former staff, and everyone knows it,” said Michael Steel, a former aide to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former House Speaker John Boehner.
The White House did not immediately announce a replacement for Cohn, whose deputy, Jeremy Katz, departed in January. Among those under consideration for Cohn’s job are CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

US reviews report of imports from forced labor in China camp

Updated 19 December 2018

AP

December 19, 2018 00:00

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BEIJING: The US government said Tuesday that it is reviewing reports of forced labor at a Chinese detention camp where ethnic minorities must give up their religion and language and may be subject to political indoctrination.US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that reporting by The Associated Press and other media “for the first time appears to link the internment camps identified in Western China to the importation of goods produced by forced labor by a US company.”The AP tracked shipments from a factory in a detention camp in China’s Xinjiang region to Badger Sportswear in North Carolina. The company ships clothing to universities, colleges and schools around the United States.Following the reports, Badger said that it had suspended business with the Chinese supplier and was investigating.The Washington-based Workers Rights Consortium, which has agreements with many educational institutions to make sure the products they sell on campus are ethically manufactured, said that “forced labor of any kind is a severe violation of university codes of conduct.”It’s against US law to import products of forced labor. Customs and Border Protection said it is part of its mission to enforce “both laws to protect individuals from forced labor and our Nation’s economy from businesses profiting from this form of modern slavery.”